Four Bayfield town trustees opted Thursday evening not to impose a three-month moratorium on business use applications.
It was a special meeting set for that purpose at their regular Feb. 7 meeting, in response to word of proposed storage units and a metal storage container lot in the Bayfield Center Business Park. Under the current land use code, those uses are allowed in a business zone. The moratorium would have given town staff time to update that code section.
The change of sentiment Thursday came after architect Carolyn Hunter showed trustees what's proposed and assured them it's not the image people normally think of for those uses. The main building fronting on Bayfield Center Drive will be two stories with a peaked roof and the short side facing the road. The second story will be living quarters for the owners, Ryan and April Paine and their four children, who are moving here from Seattle, Wash.
The storage units will have doors that swing open like French doors instead of the traditional roll-up doors. There will be porch roofs over each set of doors, wood supports, and a variety of surfaces on the outside of the building, Hunter said. It won't look like traditional storage units, she said. The metal storage containers will be new, 20 feet long, all a neutral beige color.
Hunter advised that the Paines have already spent a lot of money buying the lot and ordering the building and the storage containers.
Realtor Isaac Fleener also argued against a moratorium.
Trustees agreed with them, but Mayor Matt Salka said the land use code update is still needed.
